Cambodia

Eat / Play / Shop

I can’t recommend any shopping but there are a few dishes you must try in Cambodia (most of them can be found in markets or on a street corner):

Lap Khmer (Lime-marinated Khmer beef salad): thin slices of beef which is marinated in lime juice with lots of shallots, garlic, fish sauce, basil, mint, and bell peppers. It’s topped with chillies so it’s quite spicy

Fish Amok: rich and creamy curry like sauce that is the perfect balance of ginger, lemongrass, turmeric and coconut milk. Served in a banana leaf.

Lok Lak: stir-fried beef is typically topped with a salad of sweet tomato, crispy lettuce, raw cucumber and fresh onion, all served seasoned with lime juice and black pepper

Itinerary

-we flew to Siem Reap with Thai Airways with a overnight stopover in Bangkok

-our hotel in Siem Reap was Pavillon D’Orient Hotel  www.pavillon-orient-hotel.com which I would highly recommend; they would get you your own tuktuk driver for the day who was at your disposal to take you to whatever temples you wanted to see

-Angkor Wat is of course great to see but my favourite temples were the smaller ones: Ta Prohm (with the roots of trees growing all over) and Bayon (with incredible carved faces)

-you must get foot massages at night after dinner: great way to end the day

-a day trip to Tonle Sap Lake, Kompong Phluk is a must: the villagers’ homes are on stilts and it’s amazing to just watch like go by; unlike in Siem Reap, you really get a sense of the local people and how they live

-we flew to Luang Prabang from Cambodia (on this trip we did Cambodia, Lao and Thailand which was a great mix) – you can check out those countries on this website